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I'm not going to lie. I didn't read most of the posts without any punctuation in this thread.

With that being said, this is not rocket science. the Yankees do 1 year contracts this year, be frugal to get under the 189 and not get taxed out the ***. Once that is over we can spend. It is actually a good time to do this because the free agent market is very weak. Once we get through this one year of 1 year contract vets and scrap heap players we can go back to properly fixing this team. Every year we sign big names and it has given us ONE championship in over a decade. What is one down year going to hurt? We will still make the playoffs.

And please do not talk to me about Hamilton. Signing this guy to ANY kind of lengthy deal is Russian roulette. No one knows what kind of damage he has done to his body through his years of abuse, regardless of his current or future mental state. A lengthy deal is simply NOT worth the gamble. Have we learned nothing from past mistakes? We are all up in arms about Arod, Jeter and soon Teix being over paid with lengthy contracts, so why do we want to do more of that? Simple fact is we don't.

One year and than the real changes will begin. It's a good plan and better than spending like fools.

One year and then what? Go right back to what they were doing so they can be in the same position a few years down the road? The change that needs to be made isnít that they need to bite the bullet for a few years then start over. They need to find more balance in constructing their team. That can start now. Cashman has been quoted saying that if he canít field a competitor with $189 million, he isnít doing his job. Well that includes this year and 2014. Spending big money on free agents has only gotten the Yankees one championship, but playing moneyball has gotten the Aís none and I donít think I have to tell you Billy Beane is probably smarter than Brian Cashman.

Umm, is there a math problem here? Everybody is saying we have to be frugal for one year, but the yankees have to be under 189 for the 2014 season. That's two years.
That would be fine if we took this opportunity to rebuild with our plethora of young prospects... but we don't have any ready to come up!
Our farm system stinks. While we seem to have plenty of promising arms (who always get hurt) the last high end position player we brought up was Cano.
Yes, we've got some promising kids in Single A, but that's a long way from the big leagues. A lot can happen.
We need to start throwing serious money at our farm system, especially the scouting, if we are going to be one of those teams that builds through the draft.
The way things look right now, it's going to be three or four years before some of those Single A kids come up and there will be growing pains. In five years we will have a lot of those Albatross contracts cleared. That may be when we compliment the kids with new free agent signings. So it's looking like we're positioning ourselves for five years from now.
Of course, Hal is going to sell the team before then.

Let's say the Yankees are willing to pay $225 million or even $250 million, but are forced to pay $189 million or have a penalty that approximates $25 million to $50 million per year for the next 4 years of the baseball labor agreement. That means that they can go out an sign Hamilton and Grienke for $45 million and resign Martin for $9 million and raise their overall payroll to $250 million and pay a $50 million penalty, so that their comparable payroll costs $300 million vs. the $189 million plan.

Some on this board would believe that the Yankees wouldn't invest any of that money in their minor leagues, which is absolutely ridiculous! Of course, at a minimum, if opportunities present themselves, the Yankees would be willing to invest at least the difference between $222 million of current salary and the $189 million. Wouldn't they?

The one-year contracts are absolutely a stop gap between this year and next year. In 2years Mo, Pettite and Kuroda will almost certainly be retired taking $37 million off the books. Jeter might retire or might cost less. Granderson will likely be gone. If they're smart, they might even be a way to extend A-rod after next year on a player / personal service contract at a relatively low salary that reduces the annual value of his entire contract.

So then, the wallet can be fat and open for any of the current young stars that are free agents in their prime or arbitration eligible from low market teams. At the same time, we have 2 years to develop and improve the minor league talent.

the guys who ruined the yankees and put cashman in this position are george steinbrenner, his sons and randy levine

Especially when they charge a ton for tickets....Hal pulled a fast one on us....

Mush
My Top Avenged Sevenfold songs

Unholy Confessions
Chapter Four
Second Heartbeat
Remenissions
Eternal Rest
Bat Country
Beast and Harlot
Critical Acclaim
Almost Easy
Afterlife
Unbound
Nightmare
Buried Alive
Shepard of Fire
Hail to the King
Heretic
The Stage
Fermi Paradox
To End the Rapture

but cashman isnt to blame for having to lower to 189, he may have made blunders or not better prepared for this before but its hard to do so when everyone wants big talent, everyone saw the yankees as an unlimited bank account so they signed them to long term contracts now cashman is forced to play bargain GM even if you think his moves are dumb he is not the culprit of the expensive old team.

In terms of the current mess you are 100% correct.

However, almost all of us were salivating over Sabathia and Teixeira when they were signed going into 2009. I don't think we should all be hindsight back walking this fact because now we are facing the down side of their career bell curve.

Without ARod there would be NO 2009 championship and Cashman's track record of failure would be one decade and counting.

Yes he is a contractual albatross, yes he will be nothing but a financial drain going forward but Cashman has had 10 years to build around that fact and again seems to lack any semblance of long term franchise vision going forward but prefers (and this situation is not unique to this year or the 189 Hal edict) to employ cheap, c-grade, bargain basement, stop gaps that play as such against superior October competition.

Montero is but one shining example, Joba another, of Cashman being a reactionary instead of a long term visionary.

no matter what GM they bring we would be stuck on getting band aids, i dont get the point, we cant trade teix, arod, cc, jeter, trade value of guys that we can trade granderson and hughes wouldnt net us enough to fill the needs we do have, trading away the small amount of prpospects we do have for a temp fix just hurts us down the road, trading cano would be the ideal move but it would be a PR hit and the yankee brass wont allow it

so I think people here are very unrealistic in how we are really stuck.

management wont say we are, they wont say hey, we are low on money and moves, they will play the We are the yankees card look out for us, we are still capable of a lot, but they really cant.

So any suggestion that is brought up in a forum is useless cause you guys are just fans not scouts or executives that work for the yankees and theres no quick easy fix but to wait it out.

Very true.

And now the whole $9,000 for a box seat and franchise sanctioned $35 parking will come into play if we put together a few seasons reminiscent of the mid 80's or 2008.

To be honest, this team must reap the market-correction consequences of its own hype and I'm saying this as a fan.

You realize that there is more to what is happening than just the CBA's new rules. Only 10 years ago, UFA's were getting big contracts with big $$$$. Players were playing well into their late 30's and early 40's.

Since the advent of PED testing, suddenly players are starting to taper off in their 30's again, moreso after age 35. That is now making many of these superstar UFA's less attractive because most are not hitting UFA until 32, 33 years of age, meaning anything more than 2-3 years is nuts. That will make guys like Robbie Cano more valuable because he will hit UFA prior to 30.

Still, it means that buyer beware. GM's should tread very lightly into the UFA markets because anything past age 35 is now getting similar odds as you'd get at a roulette wheel.

The hard part is that we have not seen true UFA without PEDs. Free Agency was much different in the 70's and 80's than today. Still, George picked up many a big name in the 80's that burned the Yanks because they suddenly got OLD.

The funny thing about this is that the union has been adamentaly protective of their memberships old age, hence the continued insistence of the AL DH to keep those dues and fees rolling in well past their prime. It strikes me as the ultimate in irony that they have sanctioned an agreement which in essence undoes 25 years of collective bargaining progress in their eyes.

Cashman is doing the right thing, IMO. Unless he can somehow get Justin Upton from the D'Backs, he should stay away from multi-year deals. Let Suzuki play one more year at right field. And even Upton has like 4 years remaining on his deal.

His biggest challenge will come in 2-3 years, though when Jeter is retired, Sabathia, Tex and Cano will be getting older etc. How are the Yankees going to be contenders in let's say 2016?

The only long term deal that's effecting us is A-Rod. And his contract was only long because Yankees thought he was going to break into the homerun record.

C.C is okay, and Tex okay, because he plays a great 1B.

Wait, Teix? He's being paid like one of the top players in the game to be good defensively? Jesus, why isn't Barton getting the same money? He's good on defense as well. Actually, ARod is still solid on the defensive side of the ball......

Wait, Teix? He's being paid like one of the top players in the game to be good defensively? Jesus, why isn't Barton getting the same money? He's good on defense as well. Actually, ARod is still solid on the defensive side of the ball......

Firstly, I never said A-Rod is killing us defensively, I know he's great 3B, which is something some ppl don't see.

Second, Daric Barton is not Mark Teixeira. Period. Teixeria -- not only brings great talent -- is a presents in the infield. He has that intangibility that not many 1B have.